Claude Lanzmann is the French film director who, 20 years ago,
made the renowned film Shoah - an overwhelmingly powerful oral
history of the Holocaust. Today, Lanzmann edits a French literary
journal, and is a well-known figure on the international cultural
scene.

On 21 January 2005 he gave an interview with the Jerusalem
Post in which he discussed French attitudes towards Israel and
Jews. Here we highlight six of Lanzmann’s insights:

Ariel Sharon is so demonised by French observers that they
are blinded to the far-reaching changes which have taken place
in his political thinking

Palestinian self-criticism of the intifada, including by their
current leader Mahmoud Abbas, has been completely ignored by the
French

The European left is more intellectually rigid and inflexible
in its attitudes towards Israel than members of North African
communities in France (eg from Morocco or Algeria)

Anti-semitism is more deeply rooted in the extreme left in
France than among Muslims in France

Mainstream French media ignore the context for Israel’s
actions and present a distorted image of Israelis, as killers

The French Government condemns anti-semitism as a reflex reaction,
but people are no longer shocked

Here are each of Lanzmann’s insights in turn.

Ariel Sharon is so demonised by French observers that
they are blinded to the far-reaching changes which have taken
place in his political thinking

Lanzmann: “Israel …. is demonised
in France. People refuse to see what is new in Israel, they
refuse to accept that men can change. I was in Israel not long
ago when Sharon made his speech at the Knesset about the disengagement
plan from the Gaza Strip. At the time, he took a new and extremely
strong position. Haaretz journalist Yoel Marcus said that Sharon
had made a Churchillian speech and that he behaved as a Gulliver
among the pygmies …. The French press did not pick up
on Sharon’s speech or when they did, they did not appreciate
its significance…. I think that something is changing
and that a politician like Sharon could be the ‘man of
peace’ more than many others. One has to be prepared to
see the changes. Instead they have turned Sharon into such a
monster. Their perception is so black and white that they are
incapable of doing so…..”

Palestinian self-criticism of the intifada, including
by their current leader Mahmoud Abbas, has been completely
ignored by the French

Lanzmann: “I am shocked that the French
almost entirely ignored the extraordinary statements that Mahmoud
Abbas [current Palestinian leader, otherwise known as Abu Mazen]
made in front of the popular intifada committees in Gaza in
December 2002, several months before he was designated as prime
minister by Yasser Arafat. He said that violence had to end,
that killings were leading nowhere and that Sharon was the greatest
leader that the Zionists had had since Herzl. He actually said
that!....”

The European left is more intellectually rigid
and inflexible in its attitudes towards Israel than members
of North African communities in France (eg from Morocco
or Algeria)

Lanzmann: “My film, Shoah, is screened
in high schools following a decision from the French Ministry
of Education. I go to so-called “difficult” schools
where half of the students are from African or North African
families. I explain to them what they are going to see, I screen
Shoah, and then I answer their questions. I see how moved they
are.

I think it’s a lot less difficult with these groups of
people – but maybe I’m wrong because I haven’t
seen many of them – than with factions of the European
left.

It is almost impossible to change the rigid thinking of the
extreme and even moderate left-wing intellectuals. The bottom
line in their views about Israel is that they don’t condemn
a policy – anyone has the right to condemn a policy, but
it is not about that at all. What they condemn is Israel’s
right to exist itself. I know some of them are ready to go back
to the idea of a binational state. There are many people like
that. They see the creation of Israel as the original sin and
that we should put an end to the sin once and for all….”

Anti-semitism is more deeply rooted in the extreme
left in France than among Muslims in France

Lanzmann: “I’m sure that anti-semitism
exists among some Muslims living in France, but I think it is
less deeply-rooted than among hard-line factions of the Left.
Anti-Zionism flourishes in France. Zionism is identified with
Evil. The expression “Zionist entity” used by the
Arab propaganda, had a big impact here…”

Mainstream French media ignore the context for
Israel’s actions and present a distorted image of
Israelis, as killers

Lanzmann: A French radio station like ‘France
Info’ that people listen to all day long, offers them
totally distorted news from Israel. You have to wait until the
end of the news report, if they mention it at all, to understand
that a specific Israeli military operation in the Palestinian
territories was in reprisal for mortar shelling or a bombing.
They often don’t mention the attacks on Israel, so it’s
always the same image of Israelis: they are killers, they like
to kill…”

The French Government condemns anti-semitism as
a reflex reaction, but people are no longer shocked

Lanzmann: “In France, an inter-ministry
meeting is immediately organised each time there is an anti-semitic
act. It’s like a Pavlovian reflex, an automatic reaction.
Governments are more alert against anti-semitism than they’ve
ever been, but, paradoxically, anti-semitism has become something
totally commonplace. It doesn’t shock people anymore….”